Agenda item

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, gave a presentation about progress against objectives within the Council Plan 2019 to 2023 that relate to children and young people.  She highlighted the following information:

a)  Out of the 11 commitments relating to children and young people, nine are on track to be achieved and two are currently not on track and rated as ‘amber’.

b)  Some of the key highlights from Quarter 1 include the continuation of recruitment of foster carers with 11 new carers recruited in Quarter 1 and 18 applicants at the assessment stage; continuation of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library with 5603 children registered with Scheme and 260,819 books delivered up to July 2020; and continuation of early intervention and prevention programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Most Children’s Centre buildings had to close in response to the Covid-19 restrictions but support moved online quickly and during Quarter 1 Early Help Services delivered 237 virtual advice/ support sessions and 21 virtual parenting groups.

c)  The commitments to protect frontline social workers and assessment and consultation for children with poor mental health from cuts have been maintained, and the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for mental health support for children and young people.

d)  There has been activity to support new mums to breastfeed for longer.  There is still work to do with businesses on this, although that has been challenging during the Covid-19 restrictions.

e)  Support for parents to look after their children at home has continued during the pandemic through the Early Help Team and Priority Families Team and the Council has received funding to continue this work.

f)  The Covid-19 pandemic has made the target for at least 75% of eligible 2 year olds to access free nursery provision more challenging to achieve.  Issues include that some settings are not open/ not full open due to Covid restrictions; some parents have lost their jobs or are working at home as a result of the pandemic and therefore do not feel that they need to send their child to nursery; and some families do not feel that it is safe to send their child to nursery in the current circumstances.  This is concerning.  There will be targeted campaigns about the importance of early years provision for child development, socialisation and school readiness. 

g)  Going forward, many of the challenges relate to dealing with and mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on young people, their families and service provision.

In response to questions from the Committee and in subsequent discussion the following points were made:

h)  A cost-benefit analysis is being carried out to look at balancing the costs of supporting the Fostering Panel to reduce delays and avoid loss of potential foster carers compared with potential reduced numbers of foster carers.

i)  The caseloads of social workers working in child protection are monitored as part of the quality assurance process.  However, looking at the average caseload can be misleading because the caseloads of newly qualified social workers are protected at 10 and therefore can mask the higher caseloads of other, more senior colleagues.  The average caseload is 14-15 but because the caseloads of newly qualified social workers are protected, the majority of caseloads are up to 18.  There are a few caseloads of 19/20 and a handful of caseloads over 20 (the majority of which are in the early/ mid 20s).  Once caseloads reach the high 20s they become unmanageable.

j)  There are currently 29-32 agency social workers which equates to 15-16% of the workforce.  The Service does not want lots of different agency workers coming in and out of the Service as that is disruptive, but in many cases agency workers are some of the most qualified and experienced workers.  The pay model has recently changed and there is now more stability in retention.  There are currently 12 permanent vacancies but they have nearly all been recruited to.  Recruitment of newly qualified social workers has temporarily stopped until there is space for these roles as others progress.  There are some temporary gaps filled with agency workers as a result of things such as maternity cover and staffing gaps as a result of Covid-19. The Service is currently fully staffed using a range of permanent and agency staff.  The Director of Children’s Integrated Services commented that, in terms of staffing, the Service is in the best position it has been in for a number of years.